The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We cannot and will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint against the Council’s children services. We cannot investigate why a Court made a Care Order. We are unable to achieve the outcome Mrs X seeks as we cannot change the court order
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, complains about the way the Council’s children services team has treated her.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended) We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
I considered Mrs X’s comments on a draft version of this decision.
My assessment
Mrs X says that before the 2020 COVID-19 spring lockdown, her family received some respite support with their child, B. She says the lockdown interrupted this and the situation in their home deteriorated. She says the Council then offered a foster care placement which they accepted. She says after a month she felt the family could be reunited but the Council decided to apply for a Court Order.
At the end of Court proceedings in 2021 the Court granted a full Care Order and B no longer lives with them but is in long term foster care. Mrs X says the Council failed to treat the family fairly and B should be returned to their care.
In its reply to her complaint, the Council said that Mrs X would need to apply to Court to change the Court Order.
Mrs X says a Council social worker made inaccurate accusations against her.
Analysis We cannot investigate why the Court made the Care Order. We cannot investigate the information, including any accusations, a Council officer made to the Court.
We cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X seeks of B returning to her care. Only a Court can change the Court order.
It is reasonable to expect Mrs X to have told the Court of her reasons B should be living with her including why any accusations are false.
Mrs X has the right to ask records are ‘rectified’. This means any factual inaccuracies are corrected. If the Council refuses to do so, she can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Parliament set up the ICO to consider data protection disputes which includes ‘right to rectification’ disputes. The ICO are better placed than us to consider if the Council should change its records because there are complex exemptions for child protection case files.
Final decision
We will not and cannot investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot investigate why the Court made an order and we cannot change that order.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman